All was as it should be when they closed both shops for the night on August 28 - but at around 9.30pm a motion sensor went off, sending an alert to them at home. What was captured on the CCTV footage has astounded them.

Alan Barnsdale (left) with Alex Hunt who is holding a phone showing the CCTV footage of the orb. Alan is holding the records that the orb floated above.

Alex said: "I looked at the security feed at home and I saw this tennis ball-sized orb floating around. At first I thought it was nothing, but then the alarm kept going off and I was sat there for hours watching it. There is no explanation.

"The space for the two shops is open plan and divided into two. It was floating in the middle of the two shops.

"I have never seen anything like it before."

Alan, from Uptown Vinyl, was equally baffled - but also has his own theory.

He said: "Two days before, I had been to an old manor in Leasingham, near Sleaford. I went and bought all these old records from the 1930s and '40s and that sort of stuff, that had belonged to a man who had died.

"I had stacked a lot of them next to the counter and watching the footage it seems that the orb is searching the area where the records are."

They were both so amazed by what they saw that when vinyl consultant James Buckey went to open up in the morning at around 9.50am, he didn't turn on the main lights straight away.

The orb is captured on CCTV footage in Strange Apparitions and Uptown Vinyl Records, based at Baytree Garden Centre in Weston. (16208977)

When he opened the door, Alan said the CCTV footage showed the orb shoot from the counter to the door and then back again.

James said: "I had my phone in front of me and was watching the CCTV feed. I could see the orb on the feed on my phone but couldn't see it with my naked eye."

When he switched on the main lights, the orb disappeared from the CCTV feed.

The orb was seen darting about between the two shops on the CCTV feed the whole night.

Both businesses have been based at the premises for around three months since moving from Spalding Lifestyle Centre in Pinchbeck.

Alex and Alan have now been contacted by 'ghost hunters' and paranormal investigators. Because the orb moved about so much they are not convinced it was a glitch in the camera lens.

Alex sat watching the CCTV feed for an hour and said he had never seen anything like it.